A PhD in Horribleness

So I've been on the Google+ for a while (you can find me here) and I rather like it. Sort of a smarter, simpler Facebook. Of course one of the first things I realized after I loaded it up was that I'd have to add +1 buttons to my website. So I've just finished doing that for the blog. The script is simple and straightforward. I had a small issue with it, but it turned out to be a conflict with a third-party extension I had installed in my browser, so no biggie. Please feel free to +1 whatever you like, and of course let me know if you experience any issues. Thanks!

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

I think I might have to take part in #ThePact. So if you see a picture of me eating a donut in my Twitter stream tomorrow, that's what that's about. (UPDATE:Here you go.)

This unlimited movie pass, which allows you to see as many movies in the theater as you like for $50 a month, is a great concept, and I think I probably would have been all over it in my free-wheeling, movie-obsessed, bachelor days.

If you hadn't heard yet, World of Warcraft is now free to play until level 20. Tempting! But even when I do get the time these days, I tend to avoid playing video games and work on making one, instead. So I think I'll still be staying away from WoW for the foreseeable future.

I've always been a big fan of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, as well as Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War film adaptation, Apocalypse Now, so I'm kind of excited that there's going to be a sci-fi film adaptation called Into Darkness, even if the people involved aren't exactly top notch talent.

I feel like this Reelizer site, with the custom-made movie posters, was down for a while? Or maybe the RSS feed just didn't work very well? Anyway, they're posting again, and it's pretty impressive stuff.

IBM is pitting its supercomputer Watson against the two most successful Jeopardy contestants yet in a special episode of the quiz show which will air February 14th. We don't know what happened in the real match yet, but we do know that the computer won the practice round.

Wish you could "improve" every video you own with Star Trek-style lens flares? Well, you're in luck! There's an app for that!

Dude! The next album on Beck's Record Club list is one of my favorites of all time: Kick by INXS. Every track on this album is a hit. I'm really looking forward to hearing them all get covered. First up is "Guns in the Sky."

Marvel will be celebrating Avengers Day at comic book shops across the nation on May 19th. Besides offering various Avengers-related memorabilia, Marvel will also be launching five new Avengers books that day: Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.; New Avengers by Bendis and Stuart Immonen; Secret Avengers by Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato; Avengers Academy by Christos Gage and Mike McKone; and Avengers Prime, a miniseries by Bendis and Alan Davis. Well, I can definitely avoid Academy because I'm not a fan of Gage's work, and I definitely want to try Secret Avengers, because Brubaker and Deodato are both fantastic talents. The rest I'll have to flip through and consider.

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Above, please see how to open a bottle of beer with another bottle of beer. I suspect this is harder to do than this guy makes it look (especially for someone like me, who sometimes has a hard time opening a bottle with the device actually designed for opening bottles), but worth a try should the situation arise. (Via Sarah)

Super, the upcoming superhero comedy directed by James Gunn and starring Rainn Wilson, picked up a whole bunch of new cast members, all of whom are unfamiliar to me... except the mighty Nathan Fillion. This movie just got a lot more interesting.

Yes, this straight-to-DVD Sherlock Holmes movie is probably garbage... but it's steampunk Sherlock Holmes versus a bunch of monsters attacking London! And the monsters seem to include a T. Rex, a dragon, and a giant squid! That's hot.

Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.

Videos keep going up and down this morning! But for now, at least, please enjoy the trailer for Robin Hood above (via). This is the upcoming film from Ridley Scott, starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. It looks pretty awesome. Check out some stills from the movie here. Damn, Blanchett looks good.

A lot of stories are coming out about how Avatar ripped off this and Avatar ripped off that. I don't really care that much about any of them. I mean, what didn't rip off something? But I do enjoy this gallery of art by Roger Dean, even if it is presented in the same context.

There was a bit of an uproar a while back when the title of Kevin Smith's upcoming cop movie changed from the rather amusing A Couple of Dicks to the bland and lame A Couple of Cops. Seemingly in response to the uproar, the title was quickly changed back. Now it looks like they're changing it again - to Cop Out. It seems an unfortunately appropriate change this time.

Mark Millar is at it again. His next book is about a guy who's essentially Batman but evil, and in a world with no superheroes. People are describing the concept as "What if Batman was The Joker?" or "What if Batman was a total cunt?" (I bet Warren Ellis came up with that last one.)

It's Twoddler! Twitter for toddlers! It's a hacked-and-modded Fisher Price Activity Center that automatically sends off a pre-written tweet based on what part of the device your kid plays with. Just a prototype now, but I bet this kind of stuff will be all over soon.

The rumor flying around the internet lately is that George Lucas is planning a brand new Star Wars trilogy that would be filmed in 3D and directed by folks like Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. I feel like this might have come out of somebody misunderstanding Lucas' plans to re-release the original trilogy in 3D, but hey, you never know. Despite everything that happened with the prequels, I have to admit, I'd totally go see new Star Wars movies - especially if they were directed and/or written by someone other than Lucas.

About
Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, web developer, husband, father, and enjoyer of things like the internet, movies, music, games, and books. For a more detailed run-down of who I am and what goes on here, read this.